


Pentniss Week 2020

by Salty_Libra



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Bad Jokes, Fights, First Impressions, Forgiveness, M/M, Morning Routines, Pentniss Week (Hazbin Hotel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:02:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24497644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salty_Libra/pseuds/Salty_Libra
Summary: Pentniss Week begins! As I mentioned previously, since there's 7 of them, I'm doing relatively short one-scene "chapters" for each day's prompt - today's prompt was "First Impressions." I can't promise they'll all come out on the intended day, as things are pretty busy for me right now, but I'm going to tdo my best to get them all done! Hope you enjoy.
Relationships: Arackniss/Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 147





	1. First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Pentniss Week begins! As I mentioned previously, since there's 7 of them, I'm doing relatively short one-scene "chapters" for each day's prompt - today's prompt was "First Impressions." I can't promise they'll all come out on the intended day, as things are pretty busy for me right now, but I'm going to tdo my best to get them all done! Hope you enjoy.

This was not Sir Pentious' first rodeo in a fight. It was, however, the first time he could recall losing a fight with numbers advantage to someone half his height. 

The snake ducked behind a half-broken concrete wall, another burst of Tommy gun fire ripping through the air over his head as his opponent - a black spider short a few feet on height but making up for it with firepower - loosed barrage after barrage, cracking and breaking Pentious' sentient egg minions left-right-and-center. 

A momentary pause in the assault prompted Pentious to attempt to fire back. He peeked out from behind his cover, hoisting his weapon over the broken wall and loosing a broad, if uncalculated, burst of laser fire before looking around to assess the situation. The spider was nowhere to be seen, just the scorch marks from where Pentious' weapon had hit. 

A moment later, bullets resumed barraging him and his minions from above. Pentious looked up to see the spider running on a nearby rooftop - how he'd gotten up there was a mystery entirely - raining gunfire down on the small army. He leapt off the roof and hit the wall of another building, somehow running on the vertical surface for a brief moment before bouncing off into a spinning back flip, landing on his feet squarely in the center of Pentious and his small army of egg-constructs in a display of agility someone with a snake tail, instead of legs, could only dream of.

"Get him!" The snake screamed out to his minions, pointing a finger down the four-and-a-half-foot tall menace. The egg-constructs, slow as ever, looked around for a moment before noticing the snake's hand and turning their weapons on the spider.

Without a moment of hesitation or warning, a gun in each of his six hands, the spider rotated in place, laying down a 360-degree storm of gunfire, each motion of an arm punctuated with a harsh blast of sound and a puff of gun smoke. One full turn later, the fighting had come to an abrupt, if loud, stop - every one of Pentious' minions cracked and shattered around him, the snake himself left entirely untouched. 

"I hope ya brought more than a couple'a halfwit eggs and...whatever that is..." The spider said, nodding in the direction of Pentious' ray cannon. "I'm bored, n' this is the first decent action I've had in weeks." 

Pentious remained entirely silent, barely keeping his jaw from dropping. Something about the spider was oddly...endearing? Cute? The snake struggled to think of a fitting word, none quite entirely fitting. 

"...guess ya didn't. Eh." The spider shrugged, lowering his guns. "Guess I hoped for too much."

Pentious raised a finger, still trying to keep his jaw up. The spider sighed and began walking away, his weapons seeming to disappear into nothing as he pulled out a cigarette and lighter.

"Wait!" The snake managed to stammer out, causing the spider to pause and turn around for a moment. Pentious' thoughts raced for something to say that would hold his attention, before a light-bulb figuratively went off in his head.

"Can I buy you a drink?"


	2. Morning Routine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barely sneaking in the end of the day in my timezone here, but here is Pentniss week day 2. The prompt was "Morning/Evening Routine."

"Niss, it's past noon, time to get up."

Niss opened his eyes, slowly blinking the sleepy blur out of his eyes as red light from the windows flooded his vision. The clock on the bedside table did indeed read 12:53. He'd overslept. Again.

At this point, that wasn't exactly out of the norm for him. 

He sat up in bed and looked to the left. Pen was sitting on the other side of the bed, holding a tray of food; perhaps a bit cliche, waffles, bacon, and eggs. Niss immediately felt his stomach grumble slightly in response to the thought of food. Dinner had been a long time ago now. 

Pen set the tray down on his own bedside table and picked up a comb and a spray bottle of water.

"Turn around, your bed-head is an absolute disaster. You can have your food after." Pen twirled his finger in the air, indicating for Niss to put his back to him. Niss obeyed, listening to the methodical invervals that Pen pulled the spray-bottle to wet his hair down. Even brushing hair was a task the inventor undertook with mechanical precision - every tangle simply a problem needing to be solved.

Niss felt a chill rush down his spine - more of a pleasant tingle than an uncomfortable creeping feeling - as Pen's thin fingers ran through the back of his hair, quickly followed by gentle prickling of the comb. Within a few minutes, his hair had returned to its usual fluffed-up state. Pen took advantage of the opportunity and poked at one of the scars on Niss' back - a small bullet wound on his top right shoulder.

"So, what's this one?" The snake asked out loud, shifting to run his fingers down Niss' back to encourage him to tell the story. "A big shootout? Perhaps an assassination gone wrong?"

Niss chuckled slightly. Pen had a tendency to romanticize Niss' hit-man days.

"That story ain't much of a story, Pen. Was minding my own business in a bar when sum folks behind me started somethin'. Turned into a brawl, I wasn't even involved. Just decided to walk out when they got to shootin' and sum dumbass missed and hit me instead."

"What did you do then?"

Niss turned back around and tilted his head forty-five degrees up to look at Pen. "Who says I did anythin'? Maybe I just let it slide, eh?" 

Pen gave a flat, skeptical stare. 

"Fine, fine." Niss smirked. "Let's just say that he took out my good arm, but unlucky for him, I got five other good arms." 

Pen's flat stare shifted into a wide smile. He loved hearing these stories, for reasons beyond Niss' understanding; perhaps living them had made the stories less interesting to him.

"Now, uh...can I have breakfast?" 

"You know, Nissy, it's not really breakfast if you're eating it well into the afternoon..." Pen reached over to pick up the tray and handed it to the spider, who immediately and unceremoniously picked up a waffle and bit into it, opting to ignore the knife and fork.


	3. Bad Jokes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 3! Prompt was "Bad Jokes." This one is a lot shorter than the others - didn't have a ton of inspiration or time for this. Hopefully tomorrow's will be longer!
> 
> EDIT (6/4/2020): This was nagging at me, so I decided to go back and spruce this up a little bit.

Hit-men and hired guns often find themselves spending half their lives looking over their shoulder, and the other half staring down the barrel of a gun - either metaphorically or often literally. As a result, Niss was rather fond of the few truly calm moments he got in life. Laying on Pen's couch with a warm, if scaly, snake tail around him, solving puzzles on his phone, was one of those moments. The room was mostly quiet, aside from the slow crackling of the fireplace, the occasional sound of paper as Pen turned a page in his book, and barely-audible tapping of Niss' fingers on his phone. All-in-all, it was a rare moment of calm in a life typically spent on the run or on the hunt.

"Hey, hey Nissy!" Pen's voice broke the calm atmosphere as he looked up excitedly from his book, as though a revelation had suddenly struck him. 

"Mmm?" Niss looked up from his phone across the couch at Pen. "Somethin' up?"

"How would you measure me?"

Niss' raised an eyebrow. "Measure ya?"

"Yeah, like, from head to tail. How would you measure me?"

"Probably with a measurin' tape or somethin'...why, ya need me to?" 

"No, no, nothing like that - what unit of measurement would you use?"

"Pen, I know ya come from across the pond, and I may be Italian, but I lived in America. We use feet."

"How are you going to measure me with feet if I don't have any?"

"I, uh..." Niss' face contorted as he tried to process the logic. "Is this sum kinda joke?"

"Yes!" Pen grinned widely, his hood flaring out to the sides to match. "Did you like it?"

"Your joke didn't work very well." Niss responded, his expression unmoved by the, admittedly rather butchered, punchline. 

"Well _excuse_ me for trying to make you smile." Pen crossed his arms indignantly. "You can be such a sourpuss sometimes." 

"Ah c'mon, don't throw a hissy fit."

"I'm not throwing a h-" Pen froze mid-sentence as "You did that on purpose didn't you?"

Niss' deadpan expression slowly spread into a fanged grin. "Maybe."


	4. Distant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4! The prompt was "Distant," so Niss gets a solo scene today. Lost in his own thoughts, perhaps? 
> 
> Tomorrow's scene will probably be a direct sequel to this, as the prompt is "Closer." I wonder how things will go? 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! :)

Arackniss stared out the dingy motel window, eye glowing red eyes faintly reflecting back at him through the dirt and grime. He wasn't sure why he was staring out the window; he could barely even see past the filth, and it wasn't like there was anything worth looking at outside anyway - just the same tired red sky and seedy buildings he'd seen for the last several decades. 

The curious thing about having never been in a relationship - a real relationship - before, is that, until now, he had never had the chance to screw one up before. At least, not one he actually cared about.

_Just another in your long line of failures._

It was his fault. He knew it. Pentious knew it. If anyone else knew about the relationship, they'd know it too. It wasn't even a question Niss had to ask himself - he'd lost his temper, plain and simple. It hadn't even been something Pen had said or done that had provoked him; he'd just lost it. 

_Idiot, why do you even bother? You died sad and alone once, you'll die sad and alone again._

He took a long drag from his cigarette. He hadn't had one in weeks. Pen had helped him pull back from them, day by day. 

_You're a killer. You lost the right to love the moment you pulled the trigger and took someone's life for the Family._

He reached over to the cobweb-ridden side table and grabbed the neck of his half-emptied beer bottle and drained it before setting it next to the other five bottles he'd gone through in the last two hours. Yet another of his bad habits - an addiction, if he was being honest with himself - that Pen had helped him stabilize. 

_You're a monster. You don't even deserve another killer. You don't deserve anyone. You are destined to be alone._

He hadn't realized it until now, but he was a better person when he was with Pen. Until now, he hadn't even realized he cared about being a better person.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned the screen on, the harsh and sudden blue light causing his eyes to water. He fumbled his way through to his contact list and stared at Pen's contact - mislabeled as "Scam Caller," in case someone from the Family ever got a hold of his phone. Plausible deniability to the whole relationship. Didn't want to end up like Anthony.

Maybe he was destined to be alone. But he'd never been one for destiny.

He fingered the call button.


	5. Closer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 5, "Closer." As mentioned, a direct continuation (and resolution?) to yesterday's scene. Took the opportunity as a bit of an experiment, so if you liked the continuation here, let me know and I might into doing more continuous stories rather than entirely disconnected shorts. Hope you enjoy, and I'll see you tomorrow for day 6!

Niss stood outside the heavy wooden doors of Pen's lair, looking up at the brass ouroboros-shaped knocker meant for someone far taller than himself, deciding if he had the courage to knock. 

Just for good measure, it was also raining now. How painfully cliche. 

All-in-all, the phone call had gone well. He'd apologized, for whatever that was worth, and Pen had been as understanding as always. Even still, he felt sick to his stomach. Admittedly, the half-a-dozen beers he'd downed earlier that night probably didn't help that situation much. 

Realizing the actual knocker was far too high up for him to practically reach, Niss opted to announce himself by hand. Not nearly as loud, to be sure, but enough to get the snake's attention. Or so he hoped, anyway.

Silence from inside. Just the pattering of rain and the occasional rumble of thunder in the distance. Niss knocked again. More silence.

The spider sat down, with his back to one of the doors, arms around his tucked in legs, and stared back out at the path he had come from, his muddy footprints already fading in the downpour. He shivered; Hell was cold at night, and he was drenched, which only worsened

Maybe Pen was asleep already. Maybe he hadn't heard the door. Maybe he had changed his mind. Niss' vision began to fade out as his thoughts drifted away, physically and emotionally exhausted from the past day.

He was jolted back to reality by a sudden creaking as the door opposite him slowly opened. He looked up at the snake, not sure if he should say something or keep his mouth shut.

"Niss, you're soaking wet. You must be freezing." Pen said quietly. His words weren't accompanied by his usual soft smile, but they weren't hostile either. "Let's get you inside. You need a warm shower and a fresh change of clothes."

"Pen, I-" Niss began before swiftly being shushed by a finger over his mouth.

"I know, Nissy. I know." Pen bent over and picked Niss up, evidently unbothered by the spider's dirty, wet fur. "We can talk about it tomorrow. Right now, I'm taking you inside and you're getting a shower."

\---

"Nissy? Where'd you go?" Pen poked his head out from the bedroom, glancing both ways down the hallway to check for the spider. Nothing in either direction. He rounded the corner and found the washroom door was open, heat still wafting out from Niss' shower, but the lights were off. Curious, he decided to check the sitting room.

The spider was sprawled out face-down on the couch, his left arms hanging off the edge and touching the ground, his eyes closed, each exhale accompanied by the tiny whistle that gave away that the spider was out cold. Pen curled up on the couch beside him, reached an arm around his little spider and gazed into the fading orange fire in the hearth as he drifted off to sleep, Niss' slow breathing a calm compliment to the soft glow of the embers.

Pen knew he was letting Niss off easy. But, he also knew that the spider wasn't experienced with relationships; the concept of someone who cared about him, not as a killer or a weapon, but as a partner, was unfamiliar to him. To answer a single mistake, a single screw-up with abandonment would break the little spider's heart, and Pen knew he'd never come back from it, would never trust or love again, until the day he died his second death.

And that idea hurt far more than Niss' words ever had.


	6. Pain/Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 6, "Pain/Healing." I was tempted to make this yet another round of Niss angst, but I decided to mix things up a bit and take the prompt very literally. They've both been hurt, and now it's time for some healing.
> 
> Just one more day left!

"This is going to sting a bit, so brace yourself." Pen warned, pouring some sterilizer on a cloth. Niss' face went oddly blank, but he didn't wince, flinch or yelp when the cloth made contact with the bullet wound. Pen wiped down both sides of the wound, silently thanking whatever forces commanded the world that this was a through-and-through wound and he didn't have to dig a bullet out of Niss' stomach, before grabbing some bandages and medical tape to put over the entry and exit points.

Pen reached for another roll of bandages, binding one around the spider's waist over the wound. Niss managed his usual quiet "thank you" and leaned his back against the ceramic bathtub. The snake smiled slightly and stood up - prompting Niss to internally wonder if it was technically "standing" if he didn't have legs - and put the medical supplies back in the cabinet. As he turned to leave, Niss' eyes immediately latched onto the sight of blood - a large, jagged gash running diagonally across the snake's back. He wasn't even sure where it had come from; he couldn't recall Pen taking any big hits in the skirmish, certainly not to his back. 

"Pen, what the hell happened to your back?" 

"My back?" Pen turned his back to the mirror above the sink, turning his head back to get a look behind himself. His eyes widened slightly as he saw the laceration, but he immediately did his best to hide his surprise and any concern. "Merely a flesh wound. Barely more than a cut! Nothing that can stop the mighty Sir Pentious!" 

"...yeah, no. It ain't just a cut. Whatcha got there is a proper slash, and you're gonna sit right back down and let me take care of it."

"Let me go make some tea first-" Pen began, before quickly getting cut off.

"Your tea can wait, grab those bandages and sit ya ass down here." Niss' voice was commanding, imperative; his expression made it clear he wasn't taking no for an answer. Pen sighed, grabbed the first aid kit and handed it down to the spider, reluctantly coiling his tail down and setting his head on his hands with his exposed back to Niss, who quickly and silently got to work. 

Given the spider's rather violent background, and his wide collection of scars, Pen wasn't surprised that Niss knew how to dress and bandage a wound. He had been more than prepared to do his own injuries, if Pen hadn't gotten to them first. He was, however, surprised by the absolute speed and precision that he went about his work. The extra arms didn't hurt, either. In a matter of less than two minutes, the spider had cleaned the gash - not a painless process, but at least a quick one - and run a bandage over Pen's shoulder and under his side to match the direction of the cut. Niss pulled it tight and pinned it in place to secure it and signaled he was done with a light tap on Pen's shoulder.

The snake turned back around and the two demons looked each other up and down, both shirtless with bandages wrapped around their bodies, both covered from head to toe (or tail) in various other nicks, cuts, and bruises too small to worry about.

"Well, aren't we just a match made in Hell?" Pen smiled, grabbing Niss' hand with a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah." Niss smiled back. "Yeah, I think we are."


	7. Stargazing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was wondering what to do for day 7, as there was no specific prompt, only "Free Style." So I just started writing. It's not quite as long as I'd planned because it's almost entirely dialogue, but I'm satisfied with where it ended up, for now anyway. Also, I'm experimenting a bit with trying to represent Niss' accent more clearly. Some words in his dialogue might look a bit weird as a result. 
> 
> Pentniss Week is officially over now. Sad to see it go, but it's true. Participating in this has been an absolute joy, and I love knowing that my work, as well as the work of the numerous artists and the couple other writers who joined in, have brought at least a few smiles to the world in these intense and uncertain times. 
> 
> I'll see you on the flip side.
> 
> ~Libra

"I think that cloud looks like a train." Pen pointed up into the sky at a long cloud with a jagged corner and a series of swirly circles that looked somewhat like wheels.

"I don't see it. Just looks like a cloud, to me."

The spider and the snake were lying down, head to head on the roof of Pen's castle. Infinite red space loomed overhead, a few dozen visible stars scattered around the sky. The night was calm, and quiet, only interrupted by the occasional brief conversation; one might even have called it tranquil. Not their usual pace, to be certain, but a welcome break from the recent mayhem.

"I always loved the stars when I was alive." Pen spoke up. "The skies here just aren't the same."

"I never really noticed 'em much." Niss vaguely shrugged in Pen's peripheral vision. "I was a city kid. Skies just weren't clear enough to see 'em I guess."

A long pause. Pen tilted his head up to see where Niss was looking. His eyes were latched onto the single source of blue light in the sky, his expression a mixture of curiosity and longing.

"Do ya think it's possible for sinners like us to get up there?" This time it was Niss' turn to break the silence.

"Beg your pardon?"

"Up there." Niss raised one of his arms and pointed at the glowing blue point in the sky. "Heaven." 

"I suppose I've never thought much about it. Why do you ask?"

"Just somethin' I saw on a poster in town. Daughter of the big guy opened some hotel, thinks she can 'rehabilitate' folks like us."

"Sounds like crazy talk to me."

"I guess, yeah." Niss replied. "I dun' buy it, but I wanna believe it's possible, to go see 'em again."

"See them? See who?"

"The rest a' my family, ya'know. The good ones. The ones who went up." 

"You've never really talked about them." 

"I try not to talk about 'em much." Niss trailed off. "I miss 'em."

"What about your family down here?"

"Oh, please. I'm just a gun Pops points at anything he duzzn' like, and he'd just as soon off me himself if he found out about us."

"What about your brother? The stripey one? Do you miss him?"

"Yeah, I miss 'em. I wish things hadn't ended like they did between us. Especially now that I understand 'im more, ya'know?" Niss paused for a long moment. "Duzzn' matter anyway. That ship sailed a long time ago."

"You could try again. You've changed, haven't you? He might be willing to hear you out."

"Maybe, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up. Pops always taught me to expect the worst and plan for worse. Only good thing he ever did for me."

Pen wasn't sure how to respond, so the silence returned yet again, and the snake turned his gaze back up to the sky. A cloud was drifting by, teardrop shaped with two lobes on top: Heart-shaped. He couldn't help but point it out.

"...does that cloud look like a heart to you, Nissy?"

"No...wait...yeah, yeah it kinda does."


End file.
